Thomas Luthi had a strong start to the weekend by topping the times in an action packed opening practice session for Moto2 that saw numerous crashes during the 45 minute session.

Luthi, a podium finisher in Qatar, ended the session 0.3s faster than championship leader Stefan Bradl. Both riders were comfortably the fastest riders on track with Alex de Angelis, Simone Corsi, Mika Kallio and sixth place man Julian Simon all approximately 0.6s adrift of Luthi.

It was a strange session for the usually ultra competitive Moto2 class that saw only Michele Pirro and Scott Redding also within one second of the leading time. Julez Cluezel and Dominique Aegerter rounded out the top ten ahead of an impressive performance from Anthony West aboard the MZ.

The session started with Yuki Takahashi crashing in the opening five minutes with South African wild card, and Grand Prix debutant, Steven Odendaal scuffing his leather with a fast crash at the Criville Curve just minutes later. Numerous other riders had incidents before Alex Baldonlini crashed coming out of the stadium section in the final moments of the session.